The city of Stamford is hoping to teach 10,000 people CPR Aug. 25 with its event, Hands for Life.
If successful, the city will break the current Guinness world record for the largest number of people trained and certified as CPR providers at a single event. The Singapore Heart Foundation currently holds the title for its event in January 2011 when it trained 7,909 people.
“The statistics are alarming when we look at how many people have suffered from cardiac arrest,” said Anne Fountain, director of health and social services for the city of Stamford. “If you can prevent deaths by this easy approach of creating a training program ”¦ to me it just makes sense.”
Each year, about 785,000 people suffer a heart attack and fewer than one in four receive CPR from a bystander.
The survival rate falls 10 percent each minute without CPR before medical assistance. Only 5 percent of cardiac arrest victims survive.
Hands for Life will be held from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Chelsea Piers”™ 100-yard field house in Stamford.
As a sports complex greatly concerned about safety, helping with the event meshed well with Chelsea Piers”™ mission, said Erica Schietinger, Chelsea Piers vice president of corporate communications.
Schietinger said the organization wanted to help the city in the event since it has been so supportive of the new complex.
At the event, participants will learn the three Cs ”“ call 911, check for breathing, perform chest compressions at 100 beats per minute ”“ and how to use automated electronic defibrillators.
Compressions during CPR generate blood flow to the brain and heart, until circulation is restored by defibrillation or other therapy methods.
If the city”™s goal of 10,000 participants is met, roughly 8 percent of the city”™s population will know CPR. So far, a couple thousand people have pre-registered. Fountain said she strongly encourages businesses to get involved and encourage their employees to be trained. The majority of all heart attacks are witnessed.
“Heart attacks happen at work and having people around them be trained is a good idea,” Fountain said.
Additionally, work stress has been found to increase the risk of heart attacks, according to a number of studies. A recent study shows that women who experience high job strain are 40 percent more likely to experience cardiovascular disease. Most recent studies have focused exclusively on women, who previously were excluded from similar research. High job strain was defined as jobs with high demand and low control in the study published by PLOS One, a peer-reviewed journal.
Participants at Hands for Life can expect the training to take 30 minutes in total, including time to park, stand in line and receive the 15-minute lesson. Between 300 and 400 volunteers will be directing traffic, driving shuttles, registering walk-ins and guiding the flow of the event.
Fountain said the training would help bystanders feel confident in their abilities to respond, as witnesses are often afraid to react.
